VideoThus, while factoring extremely large numbers into their primes is an impossible task for a conventional computer, a quantum computer will be able to do it in seconds. That poses an obvious risk to current "uncrackable" public-key encryption codes, like the RSA crypto-system, which is based on factoring lengthy composite integers.
Corporate interest in quantum computers has also grown exponentially over the past 10 years. So far, very rudimentary quantum processors have been constructed in laboratories. To date, such computers are based on a few qubits. Using current technology, the upper limit of a working quantum computer would likely be about 10 qubits. But quantum machines with 50 to 100 qubits of processing power could revolutionize computing. Says Timothy Spiller, head of Hewlett-Packard's quantum information processing group in Bristol, England: "There may be things we can do with quantum processors that we don't even know yet."
Teleimmersion
Almost Lifelike
[Adopted 2025] Few science fantasies fan the imagination more than three-dimensional, computer-generated universes, à la the Holodeck on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." There's just one catch: virtually replicating the real world is really, really hard. As Henry Fuchs, Federico Gil Professor of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina, notes, "The initial excitement [about 3-D collaboration] has passed without successful results."
He should know. Fuchs, along with scientists at Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania, has been struggling for years to bring the third dimension to communications, a technology broadly known as teleimmersion. At first blush, the hurdles appear insurmountable. With existing technology, conducting a 3-D conference requires compressing dozens of data-laden video streams and processing the images over at least 1,000 processors. Even I2, the next generation Internet, can't accommodate such a flood of information.
Despite the barriers, experts are confident that teleimmersion will eventually come to pass. Unlike virtual reality, teleimmersion doesn't involve the handling of computer-generated objects. Hence, challenging technologies like haptics are not required. Moreover, advances in quantum information processing and fiber-optics will undoubtedly speed the 3-D plow.
So, too, will demand for the service. Certainly, the prospect of such supervideoconferencing, where employees see hologramlike projections of other employees, holds tremendous appeal. Some experts believe 2-D video phones, likely to be in widespread commercial use in 10 years, will pave the way for teleimmersion. In between, wide-field-of-view screens will satisfy the need for face-to-face meetings.
Then, somewhere around 2025, rudimentary 3-D conference rooms should start appearing in corporate offices. "It's difficult to predict," admits Fuchs. "But it's hard to imagine that we'll still be looking at only TV pictures in 20 years."
Sensory Networks
Signs of Life
[Adopted 2008-2010] Great Duck Island possesses one of the most sophisticated wireless networks on the planet. The tiny island off the coast of Maine boasts an unplugged mesh network composed of hundreds of palm-size nodes, each one featuring microcontrollers, memory, low-powered radios, and batteries. Some of the devices transmit real-time weather data; others cull information from sensors buried in the rocky soil. All in all, the windswept island is probably the most well-connected 220 acres on the planet.
Too bad nobody lives there. Great Duck Island's mesh network (a research project co-sponsored by the Intel Research Laboratory at Berkeley and the College of the Atlantic) is designed to monitor the habitat of the elusive storm petrels that nest on the island. Researchers believe data culled from the sensors will help them better protect the endangered seabirds.
Increasingly, experts believe the concept can work in the business world as well as the natural one. They say that sensory networks, which marry analog measuring devices (or in some cases ID tags) with wireless relays, will alter how companies protect assets and manage supplies in coming years. While much has been written about passive RFID chips for supply-chain management, advances in mesh networks and microprocessing will usher in a new era of intelligent objects, predicts Jackie Fenn, vice president at IT consultancy Gartner. As sensors get smarter, inventory will begin to track and route itself.
The real promise of sensory networks, however, may lie in the monitoring of high-value assets. BP, for one, already keeps tabs on some of its railcars and pipelines using sensory devices. And recently, the energy giant completed a pilot application of 150 wireless vibration sensors on one of its tanker ships.
Holographic Storage
Parallel Parking
[Adopted 2015-2017] A digital world generates a vast amount of detritus. According to a survey conducted by the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California at Berkeley, the world's stored information grew at an annual clip of 30 percent between 1999 and 2002. The business world contributed mightily to that tally. Customer analytics, demand-driven supply-chains, and regulatory requirements all require companies to store ever-increasing amounts of data.
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